:00:00. > :00:16.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:17. > :00:34.A 21st-century silk Road. More plans for a trade passage between Pakistan
:00:35. > :00:38.and China. And, Qantas suffers under poor demand because of political
:00:39. > :00:44.uncertainty. Welcome to Asia Business Report. A
:00:45. > :00:47.new trade link between China and Pakistan is a step closer, with work
:00:48. > :00:54.starting on the northern part of a 3000 kilometre corridor. Officials
:00:55. > :00:59.are aiming to finish the project within four years. Beijing is
:01:00. > :01:02.providing 90% of the funds for the network of roads, railway and
:01:03. > :01:10.pipelines, which will give China direct access to the Indian Ocean.
:01:11. > :01:12.The money China is planning to pour into Pakistan is more than twice the
:01:13. > :01:19.amount of all foreign direct investment the country has received
:01:20. > :01:24.since 2008. $46 billion they are planning to invest. Why other
:01:25. > :01:28.Chinese doing this? Because when it has been completed, the corridor
:01:29. > :01:31.will provide China with its shortest and most direct access to both
:01:32. > :01:35.Africa and the Middle East, where thousands of Chinese companies are
:01:36. > :01:41.operating. The hope of course is that it also makes Pakistan a
:01:42. > :01:50.business hub for the region. Among other things, the corridor will
:01:51. > :01:55.include energy projects. The real test, of course, is in the execution
:01:56. > :02:01.of these plans. The corridor faces many challenges. Logistical
:02:02. > :02:05.challenges, of corruption and lack of transparency. There has been a
:02:06. > :02:09.political upheaval, with some politicians threatening to boycott
:02:10. > :02:13.or oppose it if it does not pass through their constituencies. But
:02:14. > :02:17.all of this aside, the biggest hurdle for this mammoth project is
:02:18. > :02:28.security, because the corridor starts on the Pakistanis side from
:02:29. > :02:32.the port city of wide-eyed. This area has been marred by violence and
:02:33. > :02:36.years of separatism. It goes all the way up to Kashgar on the Chinese
:02:37. > :02:42.side. This is home to the Muslim Uighur community, who the government
:02:43. > :02:48.blames for the upsurge in recent violence. Between these two cities,
:02:49. > :02:51.the corridor then passes into areas that are in close proximity to
:02:52. > :02:56.Taliban militants, and the big question is whether Pakistani
:02:57. > :03:01.security forces can make these troublesome areas safe enough to
:03:02. > :03:05.operate in. The other big question is about job creation. Will the jobs
:03:06. > :03:15.created by this corridor be beneficial to Pakistanis or will
:03:16. > :03:19.they all go to Chinese workers? Austria's national carrier, Qantas,
:03:20. > :03:23.has seen some tough times of late. Passenger demand is slowing at home
:03:24. > :03:27.and markets in Asia are softening. Now with a national election likely
:03:28. > :03:31.to be held in July, the company is warning of weaker demand ahead,
:03:32. > :03:41.despite record recent products. -- profits. Whenever an election comes
:03:42. > :03:45.around, there has always been an impact not just on aviation, but to
:03:46. > :03:49.a whole raft of industries and businesses, as consumers tend to
:03:50. > :03:55.keep their hands in their pockets for a short period of time. I think
:03:56. > :04:00.what we were flagging is that we are seeing and we will see some impact
:04:01. > :04:07.that over the few months to come. But aviation has been able to
:04:08. > :04:11.respond to the domestic market by making sure we can keep our supply
:04:12. > :04:17.in line with the demand, and balance the equation. If domestic demand is
:04:18. > :04:22.slowing down, Werris Creek coming from? The weakening of the
:04:23. > :04:25.Australian dollar has made Australia A more attractive place for inbound
:04:26. > :04:31.tourism, and Asia for example is a great opportunity for us. And
:04:32. > :04:36.digging down even further, China is a great opportunity. The growth that
:04:37. > :04:39.is going to occur over the next few years in Chinese tourism is
:04:40. > :04:46.significant. Australia still only gets a small piece about, and the
:04:47. > :04:52.opportunities to grow, our share in the pie and the pie growing over
:04:53. > :04:58.wall is significant. How is the slowing growth affecting your plans
:04:59. > :05:01.for expansion? We have the instruments and relationships to be
:05:02. > :05:06.able to grow in China in relation to the underlying growth in demand out
:05:07. > :05:10.there. And to be able to shift and move around as we need to and
:05:11. > :05:15.respond to changes in the economy. Fundamentally, the long-term trend
:05:16. > :05:18.will be significant growth out of China. How are you managing
:05:19. > :05:27.volatility in oil prices and how does it affect your business? We
:05:28. > :05:34.have a very comprehensive but conservative hedging programme that
:05:35. > :05:38.allows us to account for that. We know prices will move up or down,
:05:39. > :05:47.and we know we have to build a resilient business that is able to
:05:48. > :05:51.compete regardless of the environment. Getting the product
:05:52. > :06:01.right is what we have been investing in. Qantas is not the only company
:06:02. > :06:09.banking on tourism out of China. China Eastern has been expanding. It
:06:10. > :06:12.has made a $10 billion deal, split between Boeing and Airbus. It will
:06:13. > :06:21.allow China's second largest carrier to expand its long haul routes.
:06:22. > :06:27.China's version of Google has been boosted by advertising money, but
:06:28. > :06:35.profits from its core search engine business has fallen between February
:06:36. > :06:41.and March. Shares in the e-commerce giant Amazon have soared in after
:06:42. > :06:45.hours trading, after it reported quarterly profits and revenue far
:06:46. > :06:51.beyond expectations. Revenue rose almost 30% to $29 billion in the
:06:52. > :06:57.three months to March, helped by rising sales of its Kindle reading
:06:58. > :07:00.devices and tablet computers. The trafficking of human labour is an
:07:01. > :07:04.enormous issue in many parts of the world, including Asia. For business
:07:05. > :07:08.it means knowing your supply chain inside and out. The International
:07:09. > :07:14.Labour Organisation estimates forced labour in the private sector economy
:07:15. > :07:21.generates some $150 billion in illegal profits every year. I spoke
:07:22. > :07:25.to the legal head for an advocacy group earlier. They asked whether
:07:26. > :07:29.companies are turning a blind eye or just do not understand their supply
:07:30. > :07:34.chains. It is a combination of everything. It is an issue that has
:07:35. > :07:41.come to the forefront and has gained a lot of interest recently. So
:07:42. > :07:47.companies are now looking into their backyards, but they are so
:07:48. > :07:50.complicated by their relationships, and you have to remember that
:07:51. > :07:54.industries like agriculture and construction relied very heavily on
:07:55. > :08:00.middlemen, on recruitment agencies and brokers, and on low and
:08:01. > :08:03.unskilled labour and cheap labour. That basically means you have
:08:04. > :08:09.complex relationships that sometimes spanned several different continents
:08:10. > :08:13.before you have an end product. Technology has come a long way, and
:08:14. > :08:18.there are huge technological advances companies can use to track
:08:19. > :08:23.their product. It indeed, and that has been done. But this is a people
:08:24. > :08:27.business, it will take a lot more than technology to fix some of these
:08:28. > :08:35.issues. One of them is the will to do it. There was a suggestion from a
:08:36. > :08:39.recent study that said a huge proportion of companies around the
:08:40. > :08:45.world suspect there is some form of slavery in their supply chain. It is
:08:46. > :08:52.about really committing to find out what the issues are, and following
:08:53. > :08:57.the risk. So, the money is going somewhere, and it is being paid
:08:58. > :09:02.somewhere. This money is not under people's mattresses, it is going
:09:03. > :09:10.into our financial institutions. And as the focus switches to how we can
:09:11. > :09:14.tackle trafficking, multinationals find themselves at the forefront of
:09:15. > :09:22.the fight. Really, we need to find points at which these proceeds of
:09:23. > :09:29.crime are made legitimate. What kind of due diligence is being done to
:09:30. > :09:36.understand where the loans are going and what types of products they are
:09:37. > :09:40.supporting. And they need to find out what the human rights impacts of
:09:41. > :09:45.those are. We have all heard of Warren Buffett, we'll just like
:09:46. > :09:48.every year, tens of thousands of shareholders will gather this
:09:49. > :09:53.Saturday to cheer on yet another year of his unparalleled success.
:09:54. > :10:00.But one question on the minds of investors is how much longer he will
:10:01. > :10:03.continue. My sense is that a successor to Warren Buffett will
:10:04. > :10:07.likely emerge from within the company. The other thing to consider
:10:08. > :10:11.is that an argument could be made for breaking up the company, which
:10:12. > :10:18.opens up a whole other list of speculations. Let's have a look at
:10:19. > :10:22.the markets. You can see Japan is closed for the day, so investors get
:10:23. > :10:26.a bit of a breather after yesterday's significant falls. The
:10:27. > :10:29.All Ordinaries is open, down just 1%. The US markets were down
:10:30. > :10:33.sharply.